Systems and methods for controlling and conditioning electrical equipment is well known in the art. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,709,318; 5,291,208; 5,315,533; and 5,384,712.
An example of a power control system for controlling electrical equipment is a power control arrangement for a computer system including components such as a computer processor unit, a monitor, a printer and a compact disk player. In this regard, the power control arrangement includes a master power supplying outlet having the computer processor unit connected thereto and a group of controlled slave outlets for supplying power to the other components. With this arrangement, whenever the computer processor unit is energized, the slave outlets supply power to the other components to energize them as well. Conversely, when the computer is de-energized, the slave outlets are de-energized causing power to be removed from the peripheral devices.
By utilizing such a power control arrangement, the user can advantageously activate or deactivate a group of components by merely activating or deactivating only one component of the group. An example of such a power control arrangement is disclosed in the foregoing mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,533 (FIG. 20).
While such power control systems have been successful for their intended use, they have not proven entirely satisfactory for controlling peripheral devices associated with home entertainment audio-visual systems. Such home entertainment systems can include television receivers, cable receivers, stereo audio receivers, compact disc players, cassette tape players and other such equipment. In this regard, the stereo audio receiver and its associated speakers may be used to provide the television audio from the television receiver.
In using such a home entertainment system, a user at any given time may desire to listen to only the audio produced by the audio components of the system, and not utilize the television receiver. Thus, if the prior known power control system is employed with such an audio-visual system, the television receiver and all of the other components can be activated simultaneously by merely turning on only one component such as the television receiver, when it is connected to a master outlet, and all of the other devices of the system are plugged into the slave outlets.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved power control method and system, which could enable a user to energize or de-energize selectively only a single master unit to, in turn, energize or de-energize the other slave units simultaneously. A key feature of such an improved system would enable a user to energize only the slave units and not the master unit by controlling only a single unit.